This application is also based on disclosure documents by the same inventor with disclosure document numbers: 429340,432511, 429131, 429131, 428843, 427754, 428048, in 1997; and 442273, 438665, 444981, 444459, 441661, 437590, 437273, 436836, 436693, 436206, 436035, 435779, 435671, 430641, 431767, 432317, 434741, 42997, 429722 in 1998.
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to wheel suspension systems, and more particularly to a wheel suspension system able to smooth movement of an object or load carried on wheels when travelling over obstructions on a surface being navigated.
2. Background of the Invention
Conventional wheel suspension systems greatly improve the function of the wheel, one of the oldest inventions, for travelling on non smooth surface, by smoothing out the momentum of the object the wheel carries, which the movement of the weight center of the wheel may not be smooth. The distance between the wheel and the object it carries is flexible so that when the wheel encounters as obstacle the distance between the wheel and object being carried thereby shrinks in order for the wheel to overcome the obstacle while keeping the momentum of the object relatively unchanged. This inevitably increases the gravity center of the object, which in certain situations (e.g., inline roller skate), is a big disadvantage. Also the shrinkable distance between the object and the wheel requires elastic material to connect the wheel and the object. This increases the complexity and cost, decreases the reliability and stability in some applications and introduces vibration to the object.
It is thus desirable to provide a fundamentally new wheel suspension mechanism. It is further desirable to provide a wheel suspension mechanism in which contrary to conventional suspension systems, the distance between the wheel and the object it carries will not shrink in the normal position. Thus, the gravity center of the object can be positioned as low as if no suspension system were used, and the object will have maximum stability. It is yet further desirable to provide a wheel suspension mechanism which does not require any form of elastic material (like spring etc), and therefore is simpler, more reliable and introduces no vibration to the object. It is still further desirable to provide a wheel suspension mechanism which overcomes the drawbacks of conventional suspension systems and could be applied to all sorts of low speed equipment such as, bicycles, trailers, scooters, skates, skate boards, roller skis, wheelchairs, baby strollers, carts, dollies etc. and some industrial applications.